National Office for Audiovisual Media (ONAMA)

Office National des Médias Audiovisuels (ONAMA) is the state audiovisual public institution of Chad, headquartered in N’Djamena and operating under the supervision of the Ministry of Communication. ONAMA was created in 2018 to replace the previous Office National de Radiodiffusion et Télévision du Tchad (ONRTV), and groups Chad’s principal state media assets under a single institutional umbrella, including the national radio service Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne (RNT / Radio Tchad) and the national television service Télé Tchad (TVT), alongside regional stations and audiovisual production and distribution units. ONAMA broadcasts in French, Arabic, and local Chadian languages.

Media assets

Television: Télé Tchad

Radio: Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne (RNT)

Ownership and governance

ONAMA’s institutional origins trace back to Radiodiffusion Nationale Tchadienne (RNT), established in the 1950s as the colonial-era radio service of Chad within the framework of French Equatorial Africa, prior to Chadian independence on 11 August 1960. National television service was introduced later, and the audiovisual services were initially grouped under the Office National de Radiodiffusion et Télévision du Tchad (ONRTV), established in 2006 and placed under the supervision of the Ministry of Communication.

In late December 2018, the National Assembly adopted the law transforming ONRTV into ONAMA and a complementary framework law on audiovisual communication; contemporary reporting gave the parliamentary vote as 104 in favour, 19 against, and no abstentions. The reform was presented as a modernisation of Chad’s public audiovisual sector, intended to consolidate national broadcasting under a single institutional umbrella.

ONAMA is described as a public audiovisual institution succeeding ONRTV; it groups all services of Radio Tchad, Télé Tchad, regional stations, and audiovisual production and distribution units. The modern ONAMA headquarters complex, built in the Djambal Bahr neighbourhood of N’Djamena, was inaugurated on 29 December 2020 by then-President Idriss Déby Itno.

Senior leadership of ONAMA is appointed by Presidential decree. The current Director General is Boukar Sanda, reappointed to the role on 10 October 2022 after having previously served as the first DG of ONAMA from April 2019 to October 2020. Boukar Sanda is a professional journalist trained at the IFTIC in Niamey and the Lille School of Journalism. By Decree N°1333/PR/PM/MC/2025 of 9 July 2025, Souleymane Djabo was maintained as Director of the National Television Direction (Télé Tchad), with multiple sub-directorate appointments made under the same decree; these are roles distinct from the overall ONAMA Director General position.

The supervisory ministry is the Ministry of Communication, headed by Minister and government spokesperson Gassim Cherif Mahamat. The Chadian political system is dominated by President Maréchal Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, in office since the death of his father, President Idriss Déby Itno, on 20 April 2021; he was raised to the rank of Marshal of Chad on 9 December 2024 and won the May 2024 presidential election. A new Constitution was approved by referendum in December 2023; in 2025, constitutional amendments extended the presidential term from five to seven years and removed term limits, with the National Assembly approving the changes on 16 September 2025 and the law promulgated in October 2025.

Source of funding and budget

ONAMA appears structurally dependent on state budget allocations channelled via the Ministry of Communication, supplemented by limited commercial advertising activity. The state has financed major infrastructure investments in ONAMA, including the construction and equipping of the new headquarters inaugurated in December 2020. No detailed, current, standalone ONAMA budget or audited financial statements were identified in publicly accessible sources.

Editorial independence

There are no statutory provisions, regulatory mechanisms, or external evaluation procedures that protect or assess ONAMA’s editorial independence from executive influence. State Media Monitor review indicates that ONAMA’s editorial output is dominated by presidential, ministerial, and ruling-party content, including comprehensive coverage of the activities of President Maréchal Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno, the Mouvement Patriotique du Salut (MPS), and the Government of Chad.

The broader Chadian media-regulatory environment is shaped by the Haute Autorité des Médias et de l’Audiovisuel (HAMA), created by Ordonnance n° 016/PR/2018 of 31 May 2018, which replaced the previous Haut Conseil de la Communication established under Loi n° 19/PR/2003 of 24 October 2003. HAMA’s nine permanent members are appointed by Presidential decree. Halimé Assadya Ali Brahim was appointed president of HAMA by Presidential decree on 29 May 2025, replacing Abderaman Barka Abdoulaye Doningar, who had held the position since 16 May 2022 and who had drawn criticism from media professionals for restrictive enforcement measures. Previously serving as Deputy Director General of Communication at the Presidency, the new HAMA president has prioritised dialogue with media professional associations during her early tenure. The regulator has been active in formal warnings to both public and private media; on 2 January 2025, HAMA issued a mise en demeure to Télé Tchad for “professional shortcomings during the electoral period”.

The broader Chadian political environment tightened in 2025 with the detention and 20-year sentence of opposition leader Succès Masra, former Prime Minister and president of Les Transformateurs.

AI and digital policy

ONAMA maintains an active digital corporate presence at onama.td, with categorised news content covering national affairs, economy, society, sports, culture, and international affairs, alongside a Facebook page and YouTube channel. No publicly available ONAMA policy on AI-generated content, synthetic-media disclosure, or content provenance frameworks such as C2PA was identified.

May 2026